Here it comes to save the day for Apple

07Aug05

Yes, it’s true. Apple now has a mouse with two buttons! Gasp!

This is such a big news in the Apple community of which has been dealing with Apple’s pigheadedness when it comes to the mouse. Some Mac users have been clamoring for a two-button mouse. And now that it has arrived, what do the critics say?

ARSTechnica‘s Jacqui Cheng likes the scroll ball but cites the poor positioning of the side squeeze buttons and thinks that Apple should bundle the mouse with the Mac desktops. It also didn’t take long for Jacqui Cheng and Clint Ecker to want to know what makes the Mighty Mouse click. Just one day after the Mighty Mouse’s initial impressions was posted, did they decide to dissect the mouse. I love the part when they called up an Apple Store in Cincinatti and asked if they still had Mighty Mouse stock. Apple Store didn’t but invited the writers to test drive the mouse in their store. They replied that they already had one but they already took it apart. “It’s amazing how well telephone silence can convey astonishment,” they wrote in the end.

Anandtech also isn’t impressed. It calls it an “interesting product” but it “isn’t exactly perfect” either. Anandtech still echoes the issue that the Mighty Mouse is still like a one-button mouse out of the box and that you need to tweak it in order to use the two-button functionality. There’s also the lack of control over the number of lines per scroll click. Gamers are warned that this mouse isn’t for them and Anandtech hopes that Apple can bring out a better mouse in the future that can compete with Logitech and Microsoft.

But not all hate the Mighty Mouse.

David Pogue prefers to use the MIghty Mouse over other mice out there. He likes the tiny trackball, or the trackpea, as he calls it, and the side buttons in opening an application or doing an action in Mac. Notice these are the same things that Mossberg hates about the mouse? Pogue is also interested in the tiny peizo speaker inside the mouse and the debate inSlashdot between Mac Zealots and Mac Haters that the mouse has created. (Maybe MacZealots should just shut up) MDN

Motley Fool reckons that the Mighty Mouse might be one more attempt to lure Windows users to the Mac side. This sentiment is echoed by Matthew Yi of the San Francisco Chronicle. MDN

Pushing aside Mossberg and Anandtech’s displeasure with Apple’s latest product. Going past Pogue’s praise of the white-trackpea wonder, Mac users are excited with the Mighty Mouse, so much so that Apple Store’s ran out of Mighty Mouse stock as soon as word got out of its release. Still, even though the mouse was received with open arms, bloggers still wonder why Apple didn’t just release a bluetooth mouse or what the hubbub is when there are better products from Logitech and Microsoft.

So, is the Mighty Mouse truly worth it? It’s a piece of eye candy and a fascinating toy but for $50 I probably won’t be too hot in getting one.